Video Production Business Tips – What to Ask In Every Sales Meeting

In order to get the most out of every sales meeting with a video production prospect, you need to ask the right questions so you’ll have the information you need to write a rock-solid proposal.

Here are the questions I make sure to get answers to before leaving any sales meeting.

1. What type of project can we help you with?

First and foremost, you need to know the kind of project it will be. (safety training, recruiting, marketing, sales, internal communications, etc.)

2. What’s the purpose for the project?

This is the reason they want to produce the video. (launch a new product, train new employees, introduce a new executive to the management team, etc.)

3. How do you intend to use it?

Where will the video play? (online, at a conference, in a meeting or trade show)

4. Who is your target audience?

In my opinion, this may just be the most important question of all. Their answer here will tell you how you need to produce the video so you can appeal to the most people possible. (executives, teenagers, middle-class soccer moms, etc.

It’s always great to get the prospect thinking creatively in the initial sales meeting. Even if they say they have no idea what will go into the video, push them a little to start brainstorming creative thoughts with you. Show them a lot of excitement when you are working through ideas with them and they will start to realize that you are definitely the right person/company for the job.

6. Are there any examples of videos you’d like us to use as inspiration?

Everyone may say that they want to be completely different. The reality is that they’ve seen another video somewhere that inspired this project so you need to figure out what that video was and what they really liked about it. Then, ask them if there are components of that video they want to incorporate into theirs. (aerial shots of their plant, interview with the CEO, customer testimonials, Glidecam footage of their sports complex, etc.)

7. When does the video need to be completed and ready for distribution?

This is the deadline for the project. You need to know how soon the client needs the video to be completed so you can plan your production process accordingly. There is often at least 24 hours between when the video must be completed and when they will show it to their audience. In some cases, depending on logistics, it’s important to have the video signed off on as much as one week before they show it to their audience. Make sure you get all that information beforehand so you aren’t caught by surprise.

8. How will you define success with this video? What does it need to accomplish for you?

Once you know what the prospect views as a successful project, you’ll have the information needed to develop a kick butt video project for them. Success to them might mean just having a video that makes their trade show booth pop in an upcoming convention. Success to others might mean a marketing video on their website home page that creates a 10% conversion rate as it relates to visitors signing up for their free offer and joining their mailing list. If you help them accomplish their goals for the project, you’ll win a customer for life!

9. Do you have a budget set for this project that we need to stay under?

If you ever leave a sales meeting without asking this very important question, shame on you! Many headaches can be avoided if you know what the prospect has set aside for this project. Not every person you want to work with will tell you what their budget is but most will if you ask the above questions first to build credibility with them. It doesn’t make any sense to submit a proposal for $10,000 if the most the client can spend is $5,000. Get this information in as many sales meetings as possible and your success rate will multiply big time!

If it’s a marketing/sales video…

10. What’s a new customer worth to your business?

This and the next question relate to showing a prospect how to calculate the ROI for your video production services. By asking what a new customer is worth to their business, you are helping them visualize winning new customers with this project. In most business to business marketing efforts, a new customer is worth far more than the cost of producing the video.

11. How many new customers will it take to pay for this video?

Conventional wisdom is that you need to convince people of how much money they’ll make by producing a video. My problem is that I always felt like it was unethical to make a promise that I had no idea would be kept. What I discovered many years ago is that if you can just show clients how fast they’ll make their money back, that gave them enough confidence to move forward with the project, not matter how much it cost. When you know how much a new customer is worth to your prospect, you can quickly calculate how many new customers it will take to “break-even” on the video project. Then, once the video investment has been recouped, the ROI after that is infinite.